Cardeto is situated on the right bank of the Sant’Agata torrent and has a characteristic stepped structure. It owes its name to the plan of the thistle (lat. carditum ") or, as others claim, to the Roman thistle.Under the emperor Basil I, the bishopric of Reggio was elevated to the "Metropolis of the Byzantine possessions of southern Italy", which allowed it to become the main nucleus of the southern Greek church, destination of a continuous influx of Basilian monks.
The other hypothesis states that the town hosted the first inhabitants when the Byzantines, around the year 1000, in order to better face the Arab threat, built various fortifications in the hinterland of the city, building kastre, also called motte, among which we remember the nearby Motta Sant’Agata of which Cardeto was a farmhouse until 1783. Probably it was the same Agatini who, in search of a safer place to escape the continuous incursions, pushed inland and founded Cardeto.
